Drill Press Chuck Removal

I recently acquired an older Delta drill press. The chuck has a slight wobble. Any thoughts as to corrective action would be appreciated. Is there an old trick to remove the chuck? I don't want to damage this old machine. Thanks in advance. Bruce

kv you may want to obtain a parts manual, to determine if the chuck is right hand or lefthand threaded

Open the chuck completely and look up inside for a screw.

Run the quill down and inspect the shaft. If there is a slot you need a "drift Key" to force out.

If the 'Jiles' method below is correct (using a wedge to dislodge the chuck), examine and clean the taper both male and female ends. I had a similar wobble in my press and it turned out to be a very fine chip that got into the wedge area.

Thanks for the quick replies. When the snow lets up I'll be able to get to the shop. I'll keep you posted. Bruce

I am searching vintagemachinery.org. There are over 1200 listings for Delta tools. Great website.

Drill presses use a taper, not thread and even if it was thread it would be right handed

Yes, you can get the chuck out with a tapered drift through the slot.

Once out, the taper shaft that the chuck is attached to can usually be knocked out of the chuck. Open the chuck, look inside. If there is no bolt head showing, it will knock out with a punch.

Then clean the shaft and the tapered hole, look for chips, burs, anything that could cause it to run out of true.

Tap the taper shaft back into the drill press. If you have an indicator, you can check it for runout, also check for side play in the lower and upper bearing (loosen the belt first).

If everything checks out with the drill press, look at rebuilding the chuck. The jaws are replaceable if it's a name brand chuck.

KV Bruce: a few thoughts in addition to what's already been said: as mentioned, the first thing to check for is a slot in the quill. This will tell you whether you need a drift key to take out the chuck. If you don't have one, places like MSC sell them for most common sizes inexpensively--a typical 2MT drift is around $5.00. If it doesn't have one, there are a number of other ways the chuck itself could be attached, even if it's on a taper. Probably the most common is for the chuck to be on a double taper--typically the end that goes in the quill is a Morse Taper and the end that goes in the chuck is a Jacobs Taper. However, this is by no means universal, and even if the quill portion is tapered the chuck may attach with a screw or be threaded on. Another thing to narrow it down is checking for a flat directly above the chuck, which can indicate the chuck is screwed on and the flat is there to hold it while unscrewing it--often accomplished by putting a large hex key in the jaws and turning it that way. Also, as noted, you can look up inside the chuck and see if there's an attachment bolt there--common ones are slotted screws and hex (Allen) head screws. If you have a dial indicator, it may be helpful to place it on several places (quill, chuck, a known straight piece of metal round stock inserted in the chuck jaws, etc.) to see if you can narrow down the location. If it's a bent chuck adapter, places like MSC carry them--you'll need to know the taper of both pieces (if applicable) and it might help your problem. It's relatively simple to measure the taper and chances are (though again, this is by no means a certainty!) that it will match up to a common Morse and/or Jacobs taper. I'm linking a page of common tapers, and there's dozens of others just a quick Google away. Post back with any model number info or other information you can find out and we can narrow down our advice.
Common taper dimensions

^D
Check It Out Here

There are some very interesting videos on U'tube. Show you how to take things apart and then reinstall the numbered jaws in the chuck. You would just never think a chuck is timed.

I bought a drill press many years ago that came with a female morse taper on the quill and a Jacobsen chuck with some other female taper. I was not familiar with that at the time but it was easy to find the shaft with the two tapers at a tool supply house.
It looks like the one in Dick L's picture and like others have said, the chuck should "pop" right off the shaft by inserting a punch down into the chuck and tapping on it.

I really do appreciate all the informative replies. I remember when I was the manager of maintenance for a small airline. I knew I didn't everything about the 727 but if I surrounded myself with the right people, together we could fix anything that broke. I feel that way here. I was able to locate a manual, which I downloaded from vintagemachinery.org. After carefully removing the spindle I was able to remove the tapered Jacobs chuck. With my new hindsight, I could have removed the chuck without removing the spindle. The spindle did have some nicks, which I cleaned up with a file while the spindle turned. Installed the cleaned chuck and it runs true as can be. Thanks again for all your support and ideas. Bruce

Fantastic!